Kieryn Matthews: Maintaining work/life balance

Introducing Kieryn   

Kieryn Matthews (she/her) obtained her Bachelor of Environmental Science at Simon Fraser University in 2017. After working as an Environmental Education Program Manager for over seven years, she decided to shift her career to focus on Environmental Planning and went back to school. She joined the University of Waterloo in 2022, studying for her Master of Applied Sciences in Urban Planning. Outside of school, you can find Kieryn browsing zero waste stores, rock climbing, reading sci-fi fantasy, or playing Dungeons & Dragons.  

Maintaining work/life balance  

Kieryn admits that deciding to return to school after getting used to a 9-5 workday for seven years was a big decision, but, overall, she’s managed to maintain a regular schedule that leaves her evenings and weekends free. A typical week for Kieryn involves attending classes and doing group work for a few days, along with a few days working at home, which includes TA work, running tutorials or grading assignments. Kieryn has a goal to finish her work at 5pm and leave weekends free from work to spend time with her partner, including going rock climbing together 2-3 times a week. While this is the goal, Kieryn acknowledges this isn’t always possible – sometimes there are multiple deadlines at the same time – but she always works to keep open communication with her partner, so they can make their own plan.   

To manage her time, she uses a physical planner that contains deadlines and assignment priorities. It helps her see the weeks ahead and her personal commitments outside of school. This allows her to efficiently work around the dates! In addition, she uses Asana, an online resource, to break down tasks into manageable chunks and have them listed by approaching deadlines, so it is easier to prioritize. She mentions, “It is important to prioritize personal activities too, like ensuring I will get my work done in  

time to go to the boardgame café with a bunch of friends, for example”.   

Despite prioritizing and managing her time, it can be difficult, and obstacles occur. Kieryn struggles with procrastination and feels like she needs to be productive all the time. She admits to leaving schoolwork until the last minute which made her journey more stressful. This would result in her missing things she wanted to do.   

To combat this, she strives to spend her time purposefully. Setting aside uninterrupted time to focus while also setting time for fun activities with friends and family helps balance that and gives something to look forward to. Secondly, she decides how much time is worth putting into a specific assignment. She explains, "if it is only worth 10% it does not need the same number of hours as an assignment worth 40%. It is also never going to be perfect”. Here, she sets an amount of time for schoolwork and hands it in so she can have time for things outside of school without feeling guilty.   

Advice for other students  

School is not everything! Kieryn encourages others to take school into perspective, reminding others that “a few years from now, you will not remember the assignments or research that you were stressed out about”. Instead, Kieryn says that what matters is “getting the degree and moving on in your career”. She understands that school can feel overwhelming or even crushing but brings up, “It is important to take a step back and understand this is just a brief period of your life to help get you where you want to go. Take the time to learn, think critically, and make connections but do not let school be the only thing in your life”. So, invest time in hobbies and people separate from school!